Berry Galette

Do you have a dessert that you make regularly? Or do you flit from one recipe to the next? I do a bit of both but more often I make something for a while, then completely forget about it. This galette is a good example of that. I've been making it since Baking with Julia was published in 1996, but these days I am always trying something new and it got pushed aside. What a shame, as this is a beautiful dough to work with, even if you are not fond of making and rolling out pastry. It comes together quickly in the food processor and stays soft enough to roll easily, even right out of the fridge. Fill it with any sort of berries you like (except strawberries--too watery), stone fruit or even pineapple chunks. 

Galette Dough

From Baking with Julia, contributing baker Flo Braker

Makes 2 large or 8 small

3 tablespoons yogurt/buttermilk/sour cream

about ⅓ cup ice water

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces

1. Stir the yogurt and ice water together and set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse 8 to 10 times, or until the mixture is speckled with butter pieces. With the machine running, add the yogurt mixture and process just until the dough forms soft, moist curds.
2. Divide the dough into 2 or 6 pieces and press each into a disc. Wrap and chill for at least 2 hours. It can also be frozen and thawed in the fridge.

Berry Galette

½ recipe galette dough

1½ cups mixed fresh berries (I used raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter (I usually omit this, preferring to serve it with scads of whipped cream)

1. Preheat oven to 400℉/200℃. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about ¹⁄₈"/0.3cm thick. The dough is soft and easy to roll, but lift and turn it and add more flour if necessary so that it doesn't stick. Transfer to the parchment lined baking sheet.
3. Place the berries on top and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon sugar. Fold the uncovered border of dough up over the edge of the berries, allowing it to pleat. Dip a pastry brush in water and coat the edge lightly, then sprinkle with sugar (I used a mixture of coarse decorating sugar and chopped pistachios).
4. Bake the large galette for 35-40 minutes, and the smaller ones for about 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and crisp and the berry juices are starting to run. Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack and cool for about 10 minutes before sliding it off the parchment to continue cooling.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature. This is best the day it is made.

See you on the 14th for my Daring Cooks' Challenge reveal! 

Citrus-berry terrine

Not sure what I can tell you about this, except that it was delicious! I made a half recipe sometime back in June, with oranges and an assortment of berries and enjoyed it for dessert with whipped cream, for breakfast (it's just fruit after all) and probably for lunch too, as I needed to clean out the fridge before leaving town. I may even have had it for a midnight snack if the photos of it sliced are any indication. So, you get the big picture and the end piece, okay? 

This is a French Fridays post--we don't publish recipes. Thanks to Laws of the Kitchen for being in a much earlier time zone--I was avoiding packing last night and saw her post, which reminded me to put my own up.

Blueberry great grains muffins

These muffins were the perfect way to jump back into the routine of Tuesdays with Dorie. I can hardly believe I missed 5 weeks, but I am glad to be back. I am finally feeling better and I definitely have my sweet tooth back, and it's making up for lost time! These muffins were actually not too sweet, and didn't taste like cake masquerading as a muffin. That's a good thing, in my book. I like to keep breakfast and dessert somewhat separate. 

The recipe called for prunes, which I love, but only to snack on. There's something about rehydrated dried fruit that's weird. It's not dried, but it's still not fresh. Weird. So, I used fresh blueberries and some candied orange peel to flavour these. I also used more whole wheat flour and less white flour than the recipe called for, and these were not dense or tough at all. They definitely had texture, as I used a stoneground polenta and coarsely ground whole wheat flour. Oh, and I used some butter and some canola oil instead of all butter, because the butter was frozen. Everything is frozen here, actually. 

:)

The first muffin I ate plain, hot from the oven: delicious. The second I ate at room temperature with butter: delicious. The rest? I froze them before they disappeared too. Actually, I only baked 6, and froze the rest of the batter in my new muffin tin with a lid (finally!). So, I'll be able to pull that out and bake these fresh another day. I'll let you know how that turns out.

This week's recipe was selected by Christine at HappyTummy, so if you'd like to make these, head over there for the recipe. Thanks for a great pick, Christine--I'll be snacking on these for a while! As always, check out the LYL (leave your link) post on the Tuesdays with Dorie page to see who else made these, and how they changed them up.